Saturday, December 11, 2010

Webcomics that I've been reading that I think you should too

It's been a while since I've done one of these. There's a pretty good reason for that, and it is this: I do not actively look for new webcomics and am incredibly lazy. I realize that in the past I made promises to add more webcomics to make up for ones I forgot, or made personal notes to edit past ones so that every one had at least three entries. I am not doing that anymore. Big surprise. Any way, on with the show.

Mushroom Go: This is what you get when you make a manga out of Super Mario Brothers and only use that as a sort of framing device. It's a lot better than I thought it would be. It offers very reasonable explanations for a lot of things, particularly Power Ups and the mysterious Shy Guys. So far they've only done the equivalent of one and a half arcs. Really small arcs. In fact, there are only 44 pages up right now, at the time of this posting. I suppose I should go into some detail on the subject. Go is found in the middle of the desert. Go is a toad, in the sense that he's one of those guys who wears a mushroom hat. He has amnesia. WAIT! DON'T LEAVE NOW! So he's rescued by a crew of sand pirates on a magic boat known as The Chainless. The Crew is composed of McCoy, a Raven from Yoshi Islnad, and second in command, Palma, a Pianta from Super Mario Sunshine, Guy, a Shy Guy, and Captain Martello, a koopa. After the requisite hazing episode, they're off on there first, and so far current adventure, raiding an abandoned weapons lab. In only 44 pages, they've managed to get me very invested, as well as throw in a lot of references.
Three Panel Soul: Really just this Kitschy webcomic that I like. Really nothing else to say about the matter.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

New Marvel vs Capcom announcement

Alright, so last post I was predicting new characters, or at least characters that would be in MvC3:FTW. And I was right, at least, about Storm coming back. I feel I should explain why I predicted Howard the Duck would be in it.



As you can see, this is a possible character select screen, or at least roster list, of characters that will be in MvC3. And in the top right corner, we have Howard the Duck. Now, I have no idea when this image surfaced, but obviously it was before Strider was deconfirmed. But the rest of the list still seems very solid. Granted it doesn't take much imagination to jump to he conclusion that Storm would return, but if you look carefully, you'll see that C.Viper is at the mirror spot of her. And who was just announced today along side Storm? Crimson Viper! Also on the list are Shuma Gorath, She-Hulk, Zero, and Haggar. Yes, I do know Haggar hasn't been confirmed, but he hasn't not been confirmed either. And you saw that picture in my last post. What person would go out of there way to take a Halloween party photo from Capcom HQ and put a MvC3 style version of Mayor of Metro City, Mike Haggar in there? Point is, they all were confirmed later on.
The only problem is that Capcom said there would only be forty characters, and this image has 21. Maybe they meant forty on the launch date, with two being DLC for down the line. Also, this image lacks some of the characters I predicted, namely Zangief, Dan Hibiki, Cyclops and Blackheart. Now, I can understand Cyclops, Blackheart, and even Dan not being there, but to deny the world a showdown between the Red Cyclone and the World's Most Bad Ass Mayor is just criminal. Also, obviously, this predicts several characters that I did not. Thanos, Ms. Marvel, and Spider-Woman for the Marvel side, and Red Arremer, Frank West, and the previously mentioned Viper and Strider. Obviously Strider has been replaced with Jill Valentine from the Resident Evil series, sporting her look (and loyalty?), from RE5. I will admit that in the past, I hoped for Frank West to show up in this, like he did for he American Release of Tatsunoko vs Capcom, and according to this, he will. This makes sense, since Zero and Viewtiful Joe also premiered in TvC as well. Red Arremer of course is from the Ghosts and Goblins series, as is Sir Arthur, my personal favorite addition. This should be interesting, since Red Arremer had his own series of games, Gargoyles Quest, but in those he was known as Firebrand and exhibited the ability to change forms, at least in the last one, Demon's Crest. He also appears in the Backgrounds of several stages, just Like Tron Bonne does in her own. Only time will tell if he gets an upgrade from Cameo to fighter.
Now on the Marvel side, we have the return of Thanos, a former Boss character from Marvel Super Heroes demoted to fighter for MvC2. This one leaves me at least a little bothered. We already have Dormmamu, do we really need someone of this caliber in here as well. Especially since the plot seems to say that Doom and Wesker have teamed up to do something evil, and I doubt they could recruit Thanos. Whatever, never mind, let's look at the other two additions. Ms. Marvel seems like a good idea, since she should play like Rogue, since the Latter stole her powers. She's also apparently pretty important nowadays, being the leader of the Avengers, last time I checked. Spider-Woman has also been in the spotlight recently, having been replaced by the Skrull Queen during Secret Invasion. Wouldn't that make for some interesting interactions between her and Super Skrull. I know that she can fly, and has some sort of laser blast, so she might be able to work. And she would bring them up to five female characters on the Marvel side. That's just as many as were in MvC2, and with fewer stupid ones, like Spiral or Marrow. Of course, I have no idea if this picture is real or not, and it might just be a very good creation with some lucky guesses, but I do hope that it's real, and that more characters will be added in down the line.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Hipsters are capable of time travel

I posit that Hipsters are capable of Time Travel. Here is my logic: Dr. Who is British. The Doctor looks like a hipster, always. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is also British, and introduced the idea that the confusion and chaos in a bistro can be used to propel a starcraft. Douglas Adams wrote the Hitchhikers Guide, but also some episodes of Dr. Who. The Doctor exists both in the past, present, and future. Hipsters are the convergence point of past, present, and future fashion. Ipso facto, Hipsters are capable of time travel, if they so wish. It would also explain why the Tardis is a Police Box. Copy and paste if you see my logic, and help spread the word to other forums. Now where is my ironic scarf and Pabst Blue Ribbon? I have to go kill hitler.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Marvel vs Capcom 3 character roster locked

That is too say, we have a definite number on how many are left to be announced. And that number is...10. So, with the 28 available out of the gate, with Shuma Gorath and Jill Valentine already confirmed as Downloadable Content/ Pre-order bonuses for collectors edition (btw already pre-ordered my copy) we now have a total of 40 characters destined to be in MvC3:FTW. All that's left now is to guess at this remaining ten. This of course leaves us with five for each side. Let's take some educated guesses, shall we?

Capcom: Megaman: This one is just common sense, since he's been in the last two. Besides, he's the poster boy for Capcom, and there would be blood in the streets if he didn't show up, and Tron Bonne did.

Zangief: He's one of three Capcom characters to appear in all previous installments. Yeah, pretty safe bet he might show up.

Mike Haggar: I'm basing this solely on a single image supposedly taken at a CHalloween party at Capcom Headquarters. I don't know about you, but it looks legitimate to me. Besides, it's about time he showed up in one of these games and perform a double lariat and spinning piledriver on Zangief. Then again, this image may just be an alternate costume for the Russian Wrestler.


M.Bison: Because apparently the plot is Dr. Doom and Wesker are teaming up all the villains from their respective sides, and Wesker is pretty lonely right now. Unless Jill Valentine is still being controlled by Wesker and Nathan Spencer is being counted because of how hated his last game was, Capcom's only got one villain so far. Bison is a fan favorite, and he's been in most of the previous games, with one still having him cameo.

Dan Hibiki: Because, why not!? I happen to like the guy, and from the looks of things, there are no joke characters revealed so far, and you've got to have one in these things. And yes, I do realize that Deadpool is a humorous character, he's just not woefully mismatched against everyone else like Dan is. Even Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighters had him. And he'd fit right in with the semi-joking manner the game seems to have.

These are of course only the ones that I think are most likely. Any of the other Street Fighters or Roll could show up. Hell, it could even be someone who had never been in one of these games, like Nathan Spencer, Dante, or Sir Arthur. Unlikely though.

Marvel: Storm: Line M. Bison, she's been in all the previous games to some extent, and because I want to see more X-Men characters in this one. Also, I'm only counting Wolverine as an X-Man. Sorry X-23 and Deadpool.

Venom: Probably going to be the Mac Gargan version. Also like Bison, he's here to fill out the villain roster, though it's already heavy on the Marvel side, one more never hurt. Also, he was in the last two MvC games.

Cyclops: I just like the guy. So sue me. I know I've heard rumors he was disconfirmed, but fuck that. I want him to show up again. 'Nuff said.

Blackheart: I'm seriously just grabbing at straws here. He was in two of the past games, and Ghost Rider is making a cameo, so that's all I got. Besides, Dormammu is in it, and I'd like to pit Mephisto's son against him. Is he even still in the comics? Does Ghost Rider even have his own comic anymore?

Howard the Duck?: Yeah, I got nothing left. This is a joke, and not even in a joke character sense. I've really got nothing left. Juggernaut, maybe? I just don't want to list too many X-Men characters, but they make up like 90% of the past rosters. I don't even think I'm being hyperbolic in that statement.

Hell, they were the first to fight the Street Fighters. It's probably why we're only getting 40 characters, rather than more than 56, like MvC2. Granted that included such fan favorites as Marrow, Omega Red, Silver Samurai, and Spiral. I'm sorry, this just sort of devolved into a rant about unoriginality, or at least a lack of diversity. I just don't see myself using many of the characters from MvC2, unlike Tatsunoko vs Capcom, where I used all of the characters, for the most part. And why? Because those characters were all interesting to me. Luckily, MvC3 is doing just that for me. It's got a nice balance of new and old characters. I want to try All of the new Marvel characters! Even Modok! I think this time they went with a lot of fan favorites, rather than whatever they already had the codes for plus some filler in MvC2.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Well, here it is



The first official trailer for Green Lantern. I'd like to say I'm hyped, but I just have some problems with it. I plan on doing a second by second review of this thing, sort of in the spirit of Trailer Failure.
00:13 Okay, hardly ten seconds in to the trailer and we have my first problem with this trailer. The "love 'em and leave 'em" depiction of Hal. I'm not sure how he's characterized in comics today, but I'm sure this isn't it. But then again, I go by the Silver Age story, though I'm sure there were never many One Night Stands in Hal's stories. Moving on.
00:21 Gah. That delivery was so wooden from Carol. Okay, it's only one line, I'm sure it's not going to be this bad throughout.
00:29 Okay, is that Carol Ferris or not? Huh, guess not. Sorry about that before, minor character who I'm sure will have no significance to the plot.
00:48 Wait, was that The Power Ring!? I'm guessing it is. Sure can't be Abin Sur's space ship, since we see that at 00:51, and doesn't look green at all
00:57 Fuck yes! Abin fucking Sur! Looking good, much better than you did in Green Lantern: First Flight. You're alien enough to the eye, but not grotesque in any way.
1:16 Finally a good look at the ring. I'm liking it so far. Looks like the Alien Tech that it is.
1:28 Tomar-Re is also pretty darn acceptable. I guess I was wrong, this is looking pretty darn good, all things considered.
1:29 And we get our first look at Sinestro as well. Nice.
1:34 Who are you?
1:36 And Why are you holding the Lantern? Don't tell me you're Thomas Kalmaku. I know Thomas Kalmaku. He is a close personal friend of mine.

You, Sir, are no Thomas Kalmaku.
1:41 Wait, so you are Carol Ferris? Then why were you flying that plane earlier? So confused.
1:43 Oh neat, a slightly-larger-than-usual fist. Also you mentioned earlier that you could create anything you can imagine, or something along those lines? So I guess we won't have the "do anything you want" variety of Power Rings then? Fine.
1:45 Hey neat, it's Dr. Clayton Forrester! You gonna shoot Hal into space inside a Dog Bone shaped Rocket?
1:51 WHAT?! What do you mean you aren't fearless? Gah, stupid need for character development in movies nowadays. Back in 1959, you freely admitted to being fearless. That was the whole point of making you a Test Pilot. To show that you had balls of Steel! I'd expect this kind of talk from Kyle Rayner, but not you Hal. As a matter of fact, I'd expect the bed hopping and irresponsibility from him too. And age range as well, come to think of it. Movie, are you trying to combine the two of these characters in to one? If I find out Hal has a secret passion for drawing , I will be very upset. Granted, it would be very hard to have Kyle in at all, considering his origins as the Green Lantern rest firmly on Hal's fall from glory. Fine, have your Cake and eat it too. Just don't let me catch you doing this sort of thing again.
1:52 Gah! Giant Head! But seriously, he's our villain? Sorry, I haven't read the Giant Head part of Hector Hammond's life yet. Maybe it's just as threatening as his steal the Power Ring phase.
1:54 What are you shooting at?
2:07 Our first look at Hal, fully suited up. I liked your costume from the get go, so you've got no complaints from me. Also, a better look at the Battery/Lantern thing. But nothing the Entertainment tonight clip didn't have, for the most part. It was better video quality though, so I will give you that.
2:24-26 Way to give me the Lantern Oath blue balls, trailer.

But yeah, all in all, it looks good. Not nearly as good a trailer as some other Comic movies (Iron Man, The Dark Knight), and there are some problems with it that I pointed out, and I'm not sure if anyone other than Green Lantern fans even know who Hector Hammond is. Even I didn't know about him until I started to read the comics, though I guess GL doesn't have much of a stock of villain he can use. Let's just hope that a better trailer comes out at a later date.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Marvel vs Capcom 3 is starting to look pretty Rad

Now I may not be any good at Marvel vs Capcom 2, but I'm not very good at pretty much any fighting game, but in spite of this fact, I am totally psyched about the upcoming sequel Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. Today I was made aware of four more characters, two from previous games in the series, two that are brand new. First off, we see the return of the leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Magneto. Secondly, we have Sir Arthur, the lead character from the poster child of controller smashingly hard games, Ghosts n Goblins. Now this will be his debut as a playable character, just like Thor, who started out as assist characters from the original Marvel vs Capcom. On the other front, we have M.O.D.O.K.'s giant head floating in, but he's not the character that got me in the mood to write. No that honor belongs to Nathan Rad Spencer, the hero of the Bionic Commando series. Now I'm a bit ambivalent about this becuase, well... look at him


He's the 2009 'Grim and Gritty' re-imagined version, with the douchey white guy dreads and Rob Liefeld arm. I can only hope that the rumors of Downloadable Content will also cover costume packs, or maybe they'll have the Re-Armed version selectable from the start. Point is, they didn't need to use this version, and probably shouldn't have. But who knows, maybe he'll be so good, we'll all be willing to overlook his hair. And if that doesn't fail, at least we'll have a character who gets less respect than Dan Hibiki. Now, these four characters brings the total of confirmed characters up to twenty-six, with the new character count up to eleven. This means that we can expect at least four more characters to be announced, with either three or all of them to be returning characters. I'm holding out hope Frank West of Dead Rising follows Viewtiful Joe over from Tatsunoko vs Capcom. The other three will probably be Megaman, Storm and Venom. Though I may be wrong, and Frank West will be a no show, but hopefully we'll get Strider instead. It's not like he's doing anything right now. It's getting close to the wire on this, so a lot of characters from 2 will most likely get over looked, at least until the DLC comes around, if it ever does.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes

Alright, now for the main attraction. Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes is the closest thing to a true sequel the movie is going to get. Due to licensing issues and what not with the movies, these comics basically ignore Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2, keeping the story and characterization of Ash from Army of Darkness, as evidenced from the opening narration from Ash matching that of the third movie. Like the majority of the rest of the stories, Ashes 2 Ashes is told in four issues, with about one or two action sequences per issue.
The first issue picks up where the movie left off, with Ash taking care of a Deadite shopper. Soon after he discovers that she wasn't the only tag along fro, 1300 A.D., as the Wise Man has come to inform Ash that he has come back too early! (A nice little reference to the alternate ending to AoD) Ash has in fact come back just as his past self has left with Linda to go to the cabin in the woods. Ash sets forth to try and prevent the whole ordeal with the Necronomicon. After a quick witted solution to the broken bridge, Ash and The Wise Man come across a Red Neck being assaulted by a deadite jack rabbit. Before too long, he gets possesed as well, just like the entirety of the woodland critters. Issue one ends with a bang, before leading into Issue two: Ash vs Ash. The first issue is your standard recap and introduces us to the new art style, a very cartoony style in sharp contrast to the last comics photo realism. The wise man speaks in Ye Olde English through out, which I don't really mind. What I do mind is the constant call backs to dialougue from previous movies, specifically Army of Darkness.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Army of Darkness: The Comic Adaptation of the Movie

Well this should be a rather quick review. If you've seen the movie, there's not much incentive to read the comic. It does serve as a refresher course, and the artwork is certainly interesting. I would best describe it as photo realistic, with only the Deadites having any real change, appearing more monstrous. The story is pretty much just a streamlined version of the movie, with a few scenes removed or abridged, but with at least two added. It does seem to be take itself more seriously than the movie it was based on. Gone are the goofy one liners and jokes, replaced with scenes that are more violent than the movie's, which I don't really feel deserves the R rating it has, and a running commentary from Ash. The major continuity difference is the ending, which uses the alternate Rip Van Winkle ending. Unfortunately this of course renders it out of canon with the rest of the stories here, so the only real explanation I can think of why they included it was for completions sake. Though it is based on an early screenplay by Sam Raimi. So it really comes down to whether or not you feel like watching the movie again on if you should read this one. I say go for it, just to get a look at the artwork and to compare it with the movie.
While we're on the subject, quick question, if Bad Ash started on the right side, why doesn't he have the metal hand? Oh well, c'est la vie.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Evil Dead/ Army of Darknes Omnibus Vol 1 Review

Coming Soon! Reviews of The Army of Darkness comic adaptation, Ashes 2 Ashes, Shop til you Drop and the other comics collected in Evil Dead Omnibus Vol 1. Find out if it's worth the price, or whether or not it was written by some primitive Screwhead.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Dear Sonic,

I don't want to love you anymore. You've burned the fans too many times in the past. You turned into a werewolf, for fucks sake! But from what I understand, your normal stuff in that game was good. And your making it hard for me to not love you with stuff like this:



Sonic, welcome home. Please, just don't try anything too crazy for awhile. Your probably still hurting from Black Knight.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

TURTLE!


Turtle Turtle Turtle

Monday, May 31, 2010

Another Round of Webcomics

Great!: "Great!" is the story of the life of one man's journey for greatness after losing everything. This one is really great, and really obscure. This is probably because of it's name. The series itself can be found on "Kiwis by Beat", Ryan Armand's personal website for his comics. The story itself begins with Mr. Phipps losing his job, wife, apartment, and worldly possessions. These early comics can be hard at times to read, just watching Our hero go through Jobian levels of loss. But this never breaks his can do spirit, and after what could be anything from months, he is eventually taken off the streets by the daughter of a Master Ramen chef and swears that he will become the best Ramen chef himself, after his boss himself, of course. What follows is basically an accelerated life story, going from youth, adulthood, all the way to middle age.
The comics themselves are presented in quite the unique way. Pages can have a few strips, up to a weeks worth of any other websites. This excuses the single day update schedule it has, but it keeps the audience wanting more. So even though there are only 77 pages, that's over 200 for any other comic, at least if you go by a multiple of three. The actual number of strips depends on the page, from anywhere between what could be called six comic strips to one big picture, though those are saved for more emotional conclusions or the introduction page. This is probably because it's a scan of a page with the comcis drawn on them, which helps you to see the division between comics.
Manly Guys doing Many things: Another video game based webcomic, this one focussed on an employment agency for what could best be described as out of work bad asses. So you've got guys like Kratos working for an electronics store, and Dante Aligheri working at a retirement center teaching needle point. The biggest draw would have to be the art, by coelasquid. Her art could be described as SERIOUS BUSINESS! There are only three original characters: Commander Badass, the guy trying to get these psychos acclimated back to a normal life, Jared Kowalski: The Worlds Worst Pokemon Trainer, who chose a magikarp as his starter and general intern at the agency, and the woman who walks by the temp agency every now and then, she doesn't have a name.
The comic is still pretty new, with only four months of comics, but it does have some extra comcis from coelasquid. And after you've read all of those, you can just go to her Devianty Art page and look at more of her stuff. Just remember, the punchline is always Machismo!

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Ushio and Tora

I suppose I should make some constructive use of this series, so I guess I'll review it. Ushio and Tora is a ten episode OVA based on the manga series of the same name. It's your standard monster fighting series I suppose, with nothing terrifically fascinating about it. The most I can say about is that it's not bad, though not great either. The humor is good enough, the action scenes are easy to follow, and the voice actors did a great job. The word I could best use to describe it is formulaic. The basic plot is a kid, Ushio Aotsuki, is the descendant of a famous Demon slayer, who years ago pinned a foul beast to a rock with the Legendary beast spear, a weapon capable of destroying monsters, but at the price of the humans soul, which may lead to the wielder of the beast spear becoming a monster themselves. This translates to Ushio growing longer hair and fangs, but his flesh also grows thicker, preventing attacks that would normally tear right through a human from going all the way through. As luck would have it, Ushio just happens to live on top of the spot where the monster was trapped, and he winds up stumbling upon him while moving some of the offerings made to his family into storage.
This releases the demons aura, but not after a humorous scene where Ushio and the Demon, from here on referred to as Tora, exchange insults after Tora asks to be released so that him may kill again. Ushio of course refuses and rubs the spear even deeper into the wound. Any way, Ushio's schoolamtes, Asako and Mayuko come by and are assaulted by fish demons, so Ushio needs the spear, but that means releasing Tora. Bad news, right? Well after a breif fight between the two, they team up to destroy the giant monster that has appeared. Basically Tora then swears he's going to eat Ushio, so he sticks around the temple, waiting for the moment to strike, and Ushio is making him clean up the mess he sort of started.
I can't really go into detail about the other episodes, but six of them are two parters, with these episodes proving to be the most violent. I may go into more detail at a later date, but they can be summarized like this: Monster unleahed, Ushio and Tora fight, either by a misunderstanding, or because Tora really was trying to eat Ushio, They team up and either kill the monster or learn some moral.
It's a two disc DVD set, with five episodes on each disc, with a blooper reel and a three episode comedy special, though they're only ten minutes long each, so don't get excited. The episodes are basically one that introduces an Comedy Special character, a monster that cleans the bathroom, one where Tora takes care of a kitten, and a silent movie one where most of the characters from the series chase Tora. This last one is my personal favorite of the three, if only because I enjoy seeing all the characters Super Deformed.
I've never read the manga, so I'm not sure how great that is, but I'm sure it ends better than this. Not sure whether or not it's been translated, though I doubt it. 33 volumes though, so you just know it lasts a lot longer than this. If each book covers at least three stories per volumeThat still leaves upwards to thirty-one volumes. None of the episodes seem to last longer than a few chapters, if that. Maybe on at most for the first batch of episodes are only three chapters long, but I'm sure the two parters were longer. They also left out a few stories from the manga, so that's a bummer. I usually don't advocate using scans of manga, but I suppose since this isn't available in english, I can make an exception, but you really should track down the OVA to balance this out, at least a little.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Iron Man 2 Review Part two

Now that we've gotten the new characters out of the way, we have to deal with the returning cast. First off, we have Tony Stark, Iron Man himself. Since the last movie, he has gone about bringing forth world peace, most likely by taking care of terrorist cells, or some other jibber jabber. We never find out how exactly he "privatized world peace", we're just told he did and have to deal with it. His major problem in this film is keeping the Iron Man suit out of the military's hands as well as coming up with a solution to the palladium poisoning he's come down with since sticking that night light in his chest. This has lead to more reckless behavior on his part, though that really only amounts to being a dick to Senator Stern, driving in that race in Monaco, and operating the suit while intoxicated, which hardly seems as risky as fighting terrorists by himself. Maybe it was more "a danger to the rest of society" thing that had everyone else worried. Any way, Robert Downey JR. once again brings his A game to this performance. The only fault I can seem to find is that he might have been to big of a dick, but that's what's expected of him. So I suppose we should move on to his co-stars, Terrence Howard. I mean Don Cheadle!
James Rhodes in this movie gets much more screen time, as he should. The build up from the first part is satisfying, though the true War Machine armor is only used near the end, during the final battle. But I must say, he wears the Mark II well, but then again, it's only his face in what I'm sure is a whole lot of CGI. But out of the suit, he's still a terrific character, though again, little development. I really cannot emphasis how often characters in this movie are just left as basic skeleton characters.
As a matter of fact, the one who got the most proportional development to his screen time was Happy Hogan, Tony's chauffeur. Played by director Kevin Favreu, he goes from a cameo to a full blown character in this one. And he's probably one of the most sympathetic characters. Thogh you can't spell sympathetic without pathetic. I'm not sure what's happening with this character in the comics now, but I read the original comics he was the only other person to have piloted to Iron Man suit, though it's been a while since I've read them, so maybe I'm making him up to be a bigger character than he is. But in this? There isn't a scene where he isn't getting thrown around. It's just a little sad for me to see this guy go from married to Pepper (one of the few things I do know about current Happy) to what basically amounts to comic relief. I suppose I should talk about her, but I don't really have much to say about Pepper. She's the same character as before, only now she's dating Tony and is the new CEO of Stark industries. I don't know, maybe I'm just bad at noticing personalities in humans, but you probably notice a pattern developing when I talk about these people.
While we're on the topic of cameos being developed (too late) Samuel L. Jackson returns from the credits in the last movie as Colonel Nicholas Fury, director of SHIELD, and all around bad ass. People were glad to see him in the first movie, and they sure as hell were ecstatic to see him in this one. He serves as a general Deus ex Machina, giving Tony the necessary stuff to keep him from being dead and slap the stupid out of him, metaphorically speaking, of course. Again, just another character there to set up the big party in 2012. Take him or leave him, though I suggest taking him. I suppose that covers all the characters, though I'm sure I missed some gripe points. In short, maybe Hogan was a sort of self insert by the director, though I doubt this, and Black Widow and Fury only acted as Fan service, in as many senses of the word as possible. I guess that leaves me to discuss the plot, though I think that might be taboo for movie reviewers. I mean, it's not like I can discuss emotion or pacing or anything! I'm an amateur. I just know how to state facts as they are, and what my opinion on those facts are. But then again, what is a movie without characters, and since I've already covered all of them, I suppose I can call it a wrap. Do I have to put a score down now?

Friday, May 7, 2010

Iron Man 2 Review

Well, I suppose I promised myself that I'd do a review, so here it is. Now, I should mention that I saw this at the midnight showing, so, my recollection may not be up to par. So, without further ado, on with the show.
SPOILERS
I suppose I should start with the new characters. We are first introduced to Ivan Vanko, son of Anton Vanko, in a Siberian slum as they watch Tony Stark announcing the Stark Expo. Ivan then watches his father pass away while cursing the Stark family name. You see, the Arc reactor Tony came up with in the last one was actually a collaborative effort between his father and Anton, so Ivan was raised to believe that he and his father had been slighted, with Howard Stark taking all the credit for the work Anton contributed. This character did not get nearly enough screen time, in my opinion. They really wasted the whole "what could have been" character, they never really focused on that aspect. I suppose they might have done that because it's been over done in their opinion. But beside that, I don't think he had enough lines of dialogue. This might have something to do with his heavy Russian accent, which was so thick, even the other characters had trouble understanding him. We're told that he is a physicist, but the only evidence we have is, well, the arc reactor he builds in his house. And while this is certainly impressive, I just feel it hard to believe that this man who apparently was raised in Siberia got a good enough education to play Mad Scientist. I can accept playboy Tony Stark, because he grew up with wealth, so he did have this opportunity. But enough of Villain number one, now we have to deal with his benefactor and Rival to Tony, Justin Hammer.
Justin Hammer in the comics is apparently an old man, so it's a good thing they got Sam Rockwell for this role. This is the character that probably stole the most of Ivan's character development. And if it weren't for Rockwell's excellent performance and soothing voice, I don't think he would be as enjoyable a character. He was a well written character, and I'm sure other actors could have portrayed him well, but it was Rockwell who really did the job. He is, like Ivan, another example of what Tony could have been, if he had fewer scruples. I think they did a better job of that with him, rather than Ivan. His main perpose in the movie is to give Ivan the resources he needs to get revenge on Tony, as well as bringing forth War Machine. All I can say about him is that I hope to see more of him in future movies.
That leaves only one new character left, the Black Widow. She may be the character who was the least necessary. Since she's undercover most of the time, she gets next to no development and serves only as eye candy. Could they have axed her character all together and replaced the scene where she breaks into Hammer Industries with Nick Fury? Probably, though then we wouldn't have gotten the fake sexual tension between her and Tony. I don't mean to knock her looks, but I really couldn't tell her from some of the other Red headed women in this movie, besides Pepper Potts. Her only purpose was too give a report on Tony at the end of the movie, and that could easily have been achieved by having any other Shield field agent spy on him. And I suppose I can't help but mention this, but I'm sure more than one nerd was upset that she didn't have a Russian accent, or really any hint of being Russian, unless I missed something.
Well, this thing is starting to drag, I think I'll post my thoughts on the recurring characters, or maybe the plot later down the line.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Avenger's Speculation 3

Well, it's just one more day until the midnight premier of Iron Man 2. Now I know plenty of people have already seen it, some legitimately, some not so much. And they've all seen whatever Easter eggs there already are in Iron Man 2. But I haven't. I've been good, and kept my nose relatively clean. The only thing I do know is that Thor's hammer is in the end credits, and Olivia Munn is a lying Whore. We can all breath a sigh of relief knowing that she will not be portraying either The Wasp or The Scarlet Witch. But your not here to read about things that are fact. Your here for crazy speculations on what the future is for the Avengers series of movies. Well, here's what i think we can look forward to, or at least what I'd like to see.
Future Movies
We already have Nick Fury as a character, he's had a movie before, and we've got an IMDB page. It's a no brainer to expect a Nick Fury solo project, hopefully with a few old friends from SHIELD, such a Dum Dum Dugan, and maybe some Hydra action. Though the IMDB page talks about him as a soldier putting together a team of elite soldiers. Does this mean we're going to get a long awaited Howling Commandos flick? It's certainly possible, since according to Kevin Feige, Marvel's President, they will be appearing in the Captain America movie. The question is whether or not Marvel will be willing to do two World War Two movies.
Now I know I've dismissed any chance of Ant Man or The Wasp appearing in the Avengers as pure poppycock, but I suppose the possibility of the two of them being introduced in the Avengers and from there going on to appear in their own movie is a possiblity. We'll just have to wait and see. But if they did get there own movie, I wouldn't mind seeing him working on an artificial intelligence, possibly based on his own brainwaves.
Not sure how many other heroes there are, but if The Avengers film itself is a success, I'm sure we can expect a sequel. Like I've said before, the comics are not hurting for plots, or at least villains. But I suppose there is nothing I can do to know what the first one will have, so I guess I can just go crazy and start my crazy Speculation now.
Insane Speculations (Or the things I'd like to see in an Avengers movie)
Something that really disappointed me about the first movie in this series, Iron Man, was that Tony Stark's loyal butler was reduced to an AI program, so I was thinking, The Avengers need a base, Tony has been their host before, so why not have an Avengers Mansion with a built in copy of Jarvis displayed as a hologram. Now I'm sure they had a good reason for not having a human Jarvis, but I still would like to see him, rather than just hear him. And if they can't secure one of Tony's mansions, I suppose they can always just crash with Fury in his Helicarriers, something a few of my nerd brethren wouldn't mind, I'm sure. On a final note, there is but one thing I'd like to hear come out of Chris Evans mouth: "AVENGERS, ASSEMBLE!"

Edit: Right, I should probably point you over to a person who does a better job at this than me, Bob Chipman aka Movie Bob. Here's his video about the Marvel Universe movies, you should totally go watch it, and then subscribe to his blog, and maybe mine, perhaps?
http://moviebob.blogspot.com/2010/04/escape-to-movies-avengers-assemble.html
If it's wonky to you, just go over to The Escapist website, coincidentally also linked on that page.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Avengers Speculation Part 2

Yesterday I covered who I feel could be members of the finished team, and those who are a long shot, and those that have a snowball's chance in hell. But what use is a team without bad guys to wallop on? If there's one thing Marvel is not hurting on, it's bad guys for there heroes to beat up. Here are the Villains I think are most likely to show up

Villains

First off, we have the villain that started this whole thing, Loki. Exiled by Odin and bested by Thor, Loki was looking for a menace big enough to get his revenge on his brother. He used his illusory powers to fool The Hulk into destroying a train track on a bridge, hoping that Thor would return to Asgard to make sure Loki was still imprisoned. Like I said yesterday about the Hulk himself, this might be good enough for a comic, but I'm sure that if he is to be involved in this movie, he'd have a better plan than that. And when it comes to Loki and big plans, there really is nothing bigger than one word: Ragnarok! If there was anything that could bring together the strongest heroes in the world, what better threat could there be than the Apocalypse? The only problem with this would be scale. Even the Ultimates only had to fight an invasion that was merely a grab for the attention of Odin from Loki. Granted it still was the greatest threat they had faced since the alien invasion, it just doesn't seem like a good enough motivation for a movie.
The point is, once you stop Armageddon, there really is nowhere to go but down. No, they'll probably have to deal with some other kind of invasion or threat. Like I said yesterday, Ultron would also make for a great villain, but you would need to first establish the character of Hank Pym, and the way it looks, we won't be seeing him until at least part two. But on the topic of established characters, what about The Leader and Abomination? Both of those characters were brought in during The Incredible Hulk, and they're both still alive, as opposed to Obadiah Stane, unless we're going by the rule of 'no body, no death.' But if he did survive, or if Whiplash does in Iron Man 2, I see no reason why a genius of the Leaders intellect would neglect to utilize them in his plans. From this perspective, we're starting to see the formation of a counter team to the Avengers, some kind of Masters of Evil, if you will.
But if you have the Masters of Evil, you probably have to have Baron Zemo. An original foe introduced in the pages of The Avengers #4 and 6, he was the reason Captain America was frozen in the first place. Whether or not he's used in the Captain America movie, or if his role will be given to the Red Skull is of course open to speculation, though I wouldn't put it past Hollywood. The point is, we'll may see some form of the Masters of Evil, whether it be headed by Baron Zemo I, II, the Leader or even Mandarin. But of course this is just one of many outcomes. As I said, there are plenty more villains out there, from Kang the Conqueror to Hydra, or even AIM. Though those last two are more organizations, rather than villains themselves, they would fit with the theme in Iron Man of villains being terrorists or weapon dealers. They certainly are extensive enough that they could be tied to all sorts of characters. Baron Strucker was a Nazi and the founder of Hydra, but he was also a leader of AIM, plus he has reduced aging and a healing factor. Would it be a stretch to think that he might fought Captain America? And the Red Skull is also a Member of Hydra, the cloned body of Captain America as of right now. The possibilities are seemingly endless with what they could do for this story. The problem is with the possibility that they could really screw things up. Ugh, this is looking boxy now. I think I'll do one more post later about any extra thing I can think of.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Avengers Speculation Part 1

With Iron Man 2 due out in little over a week, I feel that now is the perfect time to start speculation on possible plots for The Avengers. First, I think I should cover possible members of the team, then villains, and finally ancillary details.

Heroes: We've already got Iron Man, Captain America and Thor slated to be members, but what about the other founding members, Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne? Right now, it does not look likely that they'll appear, at least as members proper. They may show up as S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists, but that is stretching it for me. The thing is, they're already slated to appear in another movie headed by Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim director/writer Edgar Wright, and I'm not even sure if it will take place in the same universe. Early talks of the movie were that it would be about the first two Ant-Men, Hank Pym and Scott Lang, though this may have changed since then. Point is, if they can't get Hank Pym, then that means the next hero is next to impossible. I'm of course speaking of the intangible android, The Vision. Based on the brain waves of Wonder Man, constructed by Ultron, Vision serves as the token "Emotionless" member. He shares similar powers to the Justice Leagues own Martian Manhunter, namely Intangibility, Flight, and Super Strength. From a story point, he would be great for a sequel, if Ant-Man and Wasp do show up in The Avengers. And if he shows up, he would go great with another token twosome: Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Now we're walking in the world of fantasy, because there is no way this could possibly work from a Licensing point of view, let alone continuity. These are the the children of the X-Men's greatest enemy, Magneto. Fox is not going to let these two go, not without some sort of long drawn out fight. As for continuity, forget it, there's no way you can bring the two series together without more fuss than it's worth. In the long run, these two are never going to be in the Avengers movies. Back on the topic of founding members, who could forget the reason there was an Avengers in the first place: The Incredible Hulk. Tricked by the Norse god Loki into destroying some train tracks, the Hulks one human confidant, Rick Jones, radioed for assistance in proving the Hulks innocence. Now this may work for a twenty-two page comic from the 60's, nowadays were probably going to get something bigger. Hell, back then it was probably just a marketing ploy similar to the one behind the Justice League. No, I think that we're probably looking at at least an alien invasion. The Hulk is going to be used as a kind of secret weapon, they just need to get their hands on him , which is why Tony Stark contacted General Ross at the end of the Hulk movie. The only other members I could possibly believe would be in this are Hawkeye and War Machine, though I have serious doubts about the former and don't consider the latter an Avenger. All in all, four heroes will probably be enough to keep our attention, let's just hope they don't spread themselves too thin. That's all for today. Hopefully I'll have the energy in me to talk this in depth tomorrow.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Pierren: Son of Man

After an invigorating conversation today, I have decided to try writing more often. Today I feel the need to share my D-n-D character. Now I've never had a chance to use him, but that doesn't mean I can't give him a bit of a back story. Now I have very little first hand experience with any of the D-n-D worlds, so you'll have to forgive my lack of familiarity with certain subjects.

"Dear Father,

I hate nature. I hate the trees. I hate the bugs. And I especially hate the fact that I'm not allowed to eat any of the animals here, because those were your instructions. Now, I know you want your true heir to be brave, strong soul, but how do you expect me to accomplish great heroics in your backyard? And as much as I appreciate my training to become a Ranger, why would you come tome to Mother's village and raise me amongst humans, just to dump me back into the wilds again? Since the rest of my half-siblings managed to live with their respective mothers, why was I chosen to live with you? Did you only come up with this hare brained inheritance scheme a few years ago? This is just a ruse right, you aren't really going to leave your vast tracks of land and fortune to some illegitimate child from one of your one night stands?

From your most beloved son,
Pierre "Pierren" XXXXXX"

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

WEBCOMIS! Have you seen them?

I am really not very good at this blog thing, am I? No, empty void that is my reader base, I'm not. Well, I suppose I should back to work. Back to chronicling webcomics I'm fairly certain you aren't reading.

Boxer Hockey: What do you get when you cross Soccer with Polo with a Dash of Greco-Roman Wrestling and then threw in a genetically engineered frog in for the hell of it? Just the most awesome sport ever, that's what! Boxer Hockey Follows the American Team in the World Boxer Hockey League, Mechanical Penguin, as they rise in the ranks. The Team consists of Team Captain Skip, his wingmen Rittz and Billy Burrito and there goalie, Charlie, as well as Coach Tim Selleck. Who is totally NOT Tom Selleck of Magnum P.I. fame. Like many webcomics, it has gone through a bit of a rough patch, but it has been updating on a regular basis of once per week as of late. The art can be best described as abstract at times, with facial expressions distorting in to hilarious grimaces akin to those I'm most familiar with from Great Teacher Onizuka.

Ménage à 3: How long has it been since I talked about a webcomic which can be best described as Mature? I think it was all the way back in my first "Webcomics you probably haven't heard of." Unless we're counting the work of S. Saukrai, but this is more in between the two. While there is A LOT more nudity then Intragalctic, it still isn't as raunchy as Oglaf. Menage a 3 is your basic sitcom webcomic, centered on Gary, a down on his luck would be cartoonist who comes home one day to find his roommates ready to move out, leaving him with no one else to help pay rent. Luckily for him, they had the foresight to set out a want ad for new roomates. So before long he winds up with punk rock chick Suzi Aka Zii and Buxom French Canadian Desiré aka DiDi. Now as I mentioned this is a mature webcomic, with lots of female nudity and sex humor, but that 's really all there is. Theres no violence to speak of (except when it's funny) and the language is toned down (that or I've become desensetized to vulgarity). I don't want to go too in depth with the plot, so lets just say it's your standard "Guy trying his hardest to lose his virginty" story and be done with it. As for updates, at three strips per week with a very good consistency when it comes to sticking to this schedule, I have to commend Ménage à 3 for beign able to do something 90% of my the other comics haven't, and that's keeping up with Penny Arcade. Granted it's still ony around three years old, and may slip up a bit later down the line, but for now I'll enjoy it on a weekly basis.

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